Spate Of Ordinances Has Daddona Angry City Council

November 19, 1985|by BILL GERNERD, The Morning Call

A battery of ordinances on the agenda for introduction by City Council at its 7:30 p.m. meeting tomorrow has raised the ire of Mayor Joseph S. Daddona, who charged that council "is trying to go back to the old commission form of government."

One of the three bills would give council the right to appoint the city solicitor. It's actually a resurrection of a proposal broached earlier this year when council considered but never initiated formal action to replace solicitor Joseph Rosenfeld.

A second bill is aimed at setting specific guidelines to be followed by a re-elected mayor in the appointment or reappointment of city department heads, particularly the solicitor and the cabinet director/assistant to the mayor - the latter post held by Karl Kercher.

The third bill would once again split the recently consolidated Department of Administration and Finance into separate administration and finance departments.

Alluding to the latter bill, Daddona said he was "unaware of council's intent to split the department in two until I received my packet (of items slated to come to the floor at tomorrow's meeting)."

A confident Daddona asserted, "They (the package of three bills) won't pass. I think two of them (those relating to the solicitor and cabinet director) are illegal."

Daddona said the proposal to split the Department of Administra- tion and Finance "is being done against the recommendation of Jim (Fluck, current director of the consolidated department who is resigning Wednesday to accept the chief financial officer's post with the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.)"

The first bill takes the appointment of a solicitor out of the hands of the mayor and places it in the hands of council. Council would fill the post at the first meeting in January following a mayoralty election. It also would allow council to fill any vacancy in that office.

And the bill would give the appointed solicitor the right to appoint an assistant or assistants.

The second bill, which partially conflicts with the first ordinance, would mandate that terms of department directors "shall be concurrent' with the term of the mayor appointing the department head.

And should a mayor be re-elected, the department directors' terms "shall not be automatically extended," but be subject to new appointments or reappointments, with council's advice and consent, within 30 days after the re-elected mayor begins his next term.

In the case of the solicitor, this bill conflicts with giving council the right to appoint the solicitor in that it stipulates the mayor, not council, must submit the name of a reappointee or a proposed new appointee. And should council reject the proposed reappointment or new appointment, the mayor would have to come up with a new choice within 30 days.

While an incumbent solicitor or assistant would continue to serve until a reappointment or a new successor is approved by council, the bill specifies that the cabinet director's slot "shall be considered vacant" if council rejects the mayor's proposed reappointee or new appointee. The mayor, in that case, would have 30 days in which to submit the name of a new appointee.

And should the mayor fail to meet time frames outlined in the bill, the cabinet director's slot would remain vacant for that year. In the case of the solicitor, should the mayor fail to meet the time frame for appointments or reappointments, council then would make the appointment.

In other matters of agenda for council, a new resolution would change the method by which council has almost traditionally elected its president and vice president at the January reorganization meeting. Instead of voting by voice vote, the resolution proposes paper ballots. It also designates the city clerk as teller for the council election.

Two other new ordinances slated for introduction would raise the business privilege tax license and renewal fee from $5 to $25 and hike the license fee for solicitors or canvassers from $10 to $50 and from $2 to $25 for each solicitor or canvasser after the first in cases where a team of solicitors are working together on a particular function.